The delicate dance: EU carmakers and PRC wheelmakers

WSJ story on how European rim makers (not the tires but the metal wheels) want antidumping protection from China, whereas European car makers fear they'll get caught up in the fray and lose market share there.

Good quote that captures China's rapid move up the production chain:

"Trade disputes with China used to be about bras, T-shirts, shoes and ironing boards," says Simon Evenett, a professor of trade economics at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.  "Now they're moving downstream, and increasingly, they're going to be about cars."

America coming out of the Civil War sold basic consumers goods like that overseas (shoes were a biggie), but by the end of the century, we were likewise elevated to complex manufactured goods, thus increasingly the complexity of our trade relations with the world.

Comments

[dylan]

Thomas,

I'm not sure I see your point being proven on the basis of manufacturing wheel rims. Isn't this still just component assembly - with most of the innovation and value-add coming from outside?

[Jimmy J.]

The German growth in auto exports to China is helped by the selection of Audi as the official car or the Party functionaries. When I was in Beijing last October there were lots of Audis.